Category Archives: The Features

These are our features. They come back either weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.

Entertainment, Fun & Games, Music, We Love Music
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The Winning Ticket: Chromeo

As a way to say thanks to our loyal readers, We Love DC will be giving away a pair of tickets to a 9:30 Club concert to one lucky reader each week. Check back here every Wednesday morning at 9am to find out what tickets we’re giving away and leave a comment for your chance to be the lucky winner!

This is our first repeat offender on The Winning Ticket! Last summer when we gave away Chromeo tickets our readers lost their collective mind in the mad scramble to win the coveted prize. Shall we try for a repeat?

This week we are giving away a pair of tickets to see…the Canadian reincarnation of Hall & Oates…yes…Chromeo at 9:30 Club on Sunday, February 6th. Frankly, I considered these guys a musical joke that I didn’t quite get until I saw them perform in the Dance Forest at last year’s Virgin Mobile FreeFest. Their brilliant, sunset, synthesizer party caught me completely off guard and made me an instant convert to their cheesy/sexy/silly 80’s throwback electronic monster jams. There is something magical in Chromeo’s music that gets the party going from that first massive, warbling synth tone and keeps the energy up until their final Tenderoni ballad.

For your chance to win these tickets simply leave a comment on this post using a valid email address between 9am and 4pm today. One entry per email address, please. If today doesn’t turn out to be your lucky day, check back here each Wednesday for a chance to win tickets to other great concerts. Tickets for this concert are available on Ticketfly.

For the rules of this giveaway…
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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Arts
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The Washington Performing Arts Society Presents: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis


Photo by Rachel Levitin

Jazz – and Country/Bluegrass – are the dominant proprietors of modern “Made in America” music and that’s something worth holding on to. In its inception, Jazz defined an era of youth during tumultuous times. That was its claim to fame. That’s what got it notice. That’s what shot it to the forefront of popular culture during World War II.

Jazz defined an era of uncertainty. It ushered in a voice for the speechless. It provided a musical and mental solace for people who wanted to feel something beyond a war being fought or a job lost or anything besides the monotony of their daily routine. Jazz was the sanctuary and swing was the medium. Throw in a little Blues for a cherry-on-top flourish and by golly you’ve got yourself a true American portrait – an American testimonial.

If Jazz was personified, its equivalent would be akin to the likes of the always effervescent, charismatic, and talented Louis Armstrong. The New Orleans trumpet player, born in 1901, wasn’t the first Jazz trumpet player in the history books but he is an icon of the genre. Wynton Marsalis is a Louis Armstrong for the new millennium. Continue reading →

Special Events, The Daily Feed, We Love Arts
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February Events at SAAM

Photo courtesy Smithsonian American Art Museum

Tired of being cooped up in the house as winter rolls along? Now’s the best time to visit several of the area museums we’re fortunate to have here in DC. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has some great events lined up for winter visitors. All events are at the SAAM, located in Penn Quarter adjacent to the National Portrait Gallery.

Rockman Film Series: Silent Running
Feb. 3, 6 p.m.
The second of three classic but rarely screened sci-fi films shown in conjunction with “Alexis Rockman: A Fable for Tomorrow,” Silent Running tells the story of a scientist trapped on Saturn with two robots as his only companions after a mission to protect the last Earthly botanical specimens goes awry. Starring Bruce Dern, directed by Douglas Trumbull.

Body and Soul with the Thad Wilson Orchestra
Feb. 5, 3 p.m.
Oscar Micheaux’s 1925 silent film, accompanied live by the Thad Wilson Orchestra. Body and Soul features the legendary Paul Robeson in his screen debut, playing an escaped prisoner pretending to be a minister in a small Georgia Town. Limited seating available; free tickets are required and available in the museum’s G Street Lobby beginning at 2:30 p.m. Presented in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery.

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Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: The Comedy of Errors

(L-R) Dromio of Syracuse (Nathan Keepers) and his master, Antipholus of Syracuse (Darragh Kennan), in The Comedy of Errors, on stage at Folger Theatre through March 6, 2011. Photo: Carol Pratt.

Life can get far too serious sometimes. So can theater. Whatever happened to pratfalls? How about seeing a guy get a wet willy? Who doesn’t love a clown?

If you’re at all down lately, The Comedy of Errors at the Folger Theatre will perk you right up. It’s full of the childish pleasures of old-fashioned clowning and mercifully uncomplicated (apart from Shakespeare’s pesky plot concerning two sets of identical twins, of course!). I actually debated writing a review that would consist of just three words: “Sweet. Simple. Good.”

The first thing you notice upon entering the theater is Tony Cisek’s gorgeous set, like the waiting hall of a Victorian train station seen through the eyes of a passenger on the Yellow Submarine. Its antic colors instantly telegraph that you’re in the circus world of comedy, and thankfully, that’s just what we need. Next up is director Aaron Posner’s framing device – the presentation by British director Timothy Tushingham (Bruce Nelson) of a rough-cut documentary on his dysfunctional players, the Worcestershire Mask & Wig Society, earnestly touring the States. This preamble doesn’t really do much other than put you in the proper frame of mind to laugh, and to accept the British accents and anachronisms the actors use throughout the rest of the production.

But it’s sweet, and funny, and again – isn’t that what you need right now? I’m tired of being jaded. I enjoyed my time in Ephesus, where everyone knows your name but has no idea exactly who you really are…  Continue reading →

The Features
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Why I Love DC: Marissa Bialecki

Photo courtesy of
‘National Sunrise’
courtesy of ‘dyoshida’

It doesn’t take people very long to figure out that I am a proud New Jerseyan, hailing from the great Garden State. And no, it does not smell. Being from New Jersey, which is often regarded as the red-headed stepchild to New York City, I went through life with that smug attitude that New York was “the city.” It was the place I was supposed to return to immediately after college and become a hip little New Yorker, emulating Carrie Bradshaw, but minus the sex with strangers. And then I came to DC. I was 18 and studying at The George Washington University, and before long I was frolicking through the monuments at night, breathing in warm October air and marveling at all this new city had to offer me. Continue reading →

Featured Photo
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Featured Photo


IMG_4119 by Steve Goldenberg

A few weeks ago I encouraged those of you who are interested in photography to hone your skills by shooting a series on a subject that strikes your fancy, thereby building a solid body of work.  It’s OK if you like to wander around town on the weekends to photograph things that catch your eye, but by focusing your efforts on one idea you will find that it can take your game to the next level. Think of your favorite photographers. Did Robert Frank take pictures of cupcakes, fire hydrants, and kitty cats?  Perhaps, but they would have never made it past the darkroom.

One local photographer who has caught my eye with a particular series is Steve Goldenberg. While he wasn’t able to reply to my e-mails to explain the work in his own words, he did mention in his Flickr comment that he has “shot them (cheerleaders) three times so far” and is “trying to decide what direction to take the project in.”  If you click through his set you will see some incredible shots that would make for a great slideshow or even a book.  While it may not turn out to be on the same level as The Americans, his series does an excellent job of capturing the passion and emotion of these girls for everyone to see.

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Eat Like Me, Food and Drink, The Features
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Eat Like Me: January’s Best Dishes

Photo courtesy of
‘264/365 – estadio’
courtesy of ‘dracisk 365/365’
It was a big month for me food-wise this January. I ate at a lot of new to me restaurants that treated me well (Estadio, Masa 14, Againn, Room 11) some new to me restaurants that didn’t treat me so well ([redacted]), and some old favorites that stayed my favorites (Tackle Box, Ted’s Bulletin, Market Lunch, Sticky Rice). And it was a big month for favorite dishes, so much so that some of my standards aren’t making this month’s best dishes list. Fear not, Brick sandwich from Market Lunch and tater tots from Sticky Rice, you’re still numero uno in my heart. Especially you, duck confit from Cork, Mommy loves you most of all.

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Sports Fix, The Features
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Sports Fix: The Last Midnight Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘Al Harrington and Andray Blatche’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

Wizards

Record: 13-33
Last Two Weeks: 2-6
Place: 5th in the Southeast

In the middle of a four game road trip, the Wizards have yet to find that magic road W and fall to 0-23 on the road this season. The patience and reasons are running thin. The trip started with a promising double-overtime loss to Oklahoma City that was followed with a disappointing loss in Memphis that caused Wizards’ forward Nick Young to criticize the play calling.

Up until now the Wizards have taken their road losing streak in stride and have avoided pointing fingers. This looks to be the shot across the bow as the team struggles to figure out what they have to do to get a win on the road. It is surprising to see Young break away from his friendly, easy going, personality in the locker room, perhaps a sign of true frustration among the team. Maybe Young needs to start receiving $50 behavior fines like John Wall.

 

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Entertainment, Music, We Love Music
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We Love Music: Archivists/Fluorescent Sense/Southern Problems @ the Rock & Roll Hotel, 1/28/11

Rock & Roll Hotel’s upstairs bar was packed with the usual Friday night denizens dancing away to the predictable throbbing drumbeats of the hired DJ. The downstairs bar was the place to be for rock music fans wanting to catch three fine, up-and-coming, local DC bands displaying their original songs and rock musical acumen. Archivists were headlining tonight, but on a good local bill like this, all three bands were given a full chance to provide a set of their original music to fans, friends, and people wanting to have something more than just a DJ’s beat with their buzz. And Archivists, Fluorescent Sense and Southern Problems delivered the goods.

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Food and Drink, The Features
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First Look: Mandu

Photo courtesy of
‘Ducks, Mandu’
courtesy of ‘Jenn Larsen’

It’s fascinating to me how one place can unite a diverse selection of people. Mandu, the unassuming, lively Korean restaurant in Dupont Circle, does just that for many friends of mine who don’t even know each other. Crowding into the tiny front bar enjoying one of the best happy hour deals in town, I’m guaranteed to bump into any number of people from all areas of my life.

The Lee family have opened a second location of their much-beloved Mandu, with a larger, sexier space in the CityVista complex. I’m sure it will become just as popular as the original location. I recently checked it out and was thrilled to see bar manager Christian Diep, one of the most gregarious and fun-loving bartenders in town. Sitting at the end of the floating wooden bar (hooks underneath? check), I tucked into several of my favorite Mandu dishes and got a tour of the modern space. It was just as welcoming as it always is at the Dupont location – somehow they make everyone feel like they’re home.

And with a late night menu where you can nosh on shredded pork tacos or quesadillas filled with kimchi, chicken and cheese… well, you may not ever have to leave. Continue reading →

Talkin' Transit
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Talkin’ Transit: CEO Sarles

Photo courtesy of
”
courtesy of ‘erin m’

We are putting building blocks in place – making safety investments, improving our tracks and rail system, putting new buses in service, expanding staff training and designing new rail cars – while it may not be immediately evident and there are inconveniences along the way – we are literally building a new Metro for our customers and employees. — Metro’s GM/CEO, Richard Sarles

As we reported yesterday, Metro’s board named Richard Sarles as the permanent General Manager and Chief Executive Officer. It’s a move they should have done in the first place, and one that I said might happen when we first heard of Sarles.

Over ten months, Sarles has brought an engineer’s attitude and has been acting less interim than his title would have implied. He said he wasn’t looking to come here full time, but he always seemed to want to make an impact. “I came to Metro as the interim general manager,” he said at the board meeting yesterday, “simply wanting to help put the agency on the right path.”
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Food and Drink, Foodie Roundup, We Love Food
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Dining One Year Later: Bistro La Bonne

DSCN0535

Photo Courtesy Tricia Barba

This is the first of our “Dining One Year Later” look, where as the title suggests, we take a glance back at restaurants that have been open for one year and see how they’re doing. We will run this feature once every two weeks.

Snapshot Verdict: Great food in a relaxed atmosphere.

You could almost walk by the restaurant if you weren’t paying close enough attention. That is until you see the  “Bistro La Bonne” sign, named after the owner and chef Daniel Labonne.

The eponymous French restaurant opened at the end of 2009, taking over the space where the bar Axis once stood. With its friendly service, steak-frites, and escargot, Bistro La Bonne has been a welcome addition to this neighborhood. Chef Labonne tells me that the 50-seat restaurant serves more than 100 people on the weekdays and 200 on the weekends.

It’s a tight fit; the restaurant is narrow, though it does have a loft as well. You won’t be on someone’s lap on table next to you like you might be at Bistro Du Coin, but you won’t be stretching out either, especially if you are sitting near the bar. Speaking of the bar, it is long and perfect for watching soccer (or football as us World Cup fans would say).  Diners will like the brick walls and pictures on display.

Some gossip here — Labonne tells us he’s going to expand physically, but won’t divulge if it will just be an addition to the existing restaurant or a completely new concept. Ugh, ANC, ABRA boards here I come.

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Food and Drink, The Features, We Love Drinks
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Drinks Preview: Church & State

Photo courtesy of
‘Church and State’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

Consistency and creativity are the two elements Erik Holzherr strives for in his bars. Add to that the well-deserved cliche of infectious enthusiasm – after just a few minutes of talking to him about his newest venture at the media preview for Church & State, I swear fellow WLDC authors Ashley, Samer and I are ready to go forth and open our own bar! Strike that. We’ll just be content with spreading the cocktail gospel.

Erik already has two popular bars in DC, both serving as outposts in developing neighborhoods. Wisdom was followed by Fruit Bat, and now Church & State is open to the public. Upstairs from Fruit Bat on H Street NE, it’s got such a gothic sensibility I found myself seriously craving a clove cigarette. Next time you feel the need to don the vintage finery, this is the bar to visit. Dimly lit, with reclaimed wood, flickering altar candles, and plenty of stained glass make for a striking effect. Add in an actual confessional room that gave Ashley and I total Exorcist chills, plus a raised alcove with a majestic leather couch that will definitely be fought over, and you have a small temple to the American cocktail. Continue reading →

We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends, January 29-30

Photo courtesy of
‘sweet snowflake’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Addison: If I survive Snow-tastrophe 2011, this weekend I plan on making the trek out to Tysons Corner, since I haven’t bought new work clothes in 2 years and will (hopefully) have a bunch of interviews coming up before I get my master’s in May.  Saturday night, I’m going to be hitting up Bayou in Georgetown for a friend’s birthday. Brunch on Sunday will be at Churchkey with some friends and WLDC staff where we sample the number one sandwich in the country, the Luther.  The rest of the weekend will likely be spent in a diabetic coma.

Dave: Have to say, not even a smidge of snow and the subsequent overblown reaction can dampen my spirits for hanging around DC this weekend. I’m finally here for about six weeks straight, so I’m looking forward to getting reacquainted with this District of mine. Friday night will involve a night around Columbia Heights, sounds like a birthday celebration will take me to The Hub. Saturday’s big event will be a musical appearance with the rest of The Greensides at the DC chapter of Penn State alumni’s fundraiser for its Thon event. On Sunday, I’m hoping to join the WLDC Luther competition at Churchkey – even if we apparently don’t get health benefits through our authorship, according to the higher-ups. Continue reading →

Entertainment, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: Tynan

Philip Goodwin in Tynan at the Studio Theatre. Photo credit: Carol Pratt

Anyone who arrives at self-knowledge through desperation is the raw material for a great play.
— Kenneth Tynan

Watching Tynan reminded me that I should make sure my journals get burned at my death (oh wait, what about that online diary in the cloud? too late!). No matter how we are in life, the voice we give free rein to in our diary is by its nature egocentric. Does it make for good drama?

Richard Nelson and Colin Chambers adapted The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan into a one-man play, helmed in this special engagement by beloved DC actor Philip Goodwin at the Studio Theatre. It’s a monologue of choice (and not-so-choice) moments from the last ten years of Tynan’s life, a man many consider the greatest theater critic of the last century. There’s a heavy resignation in listening to the musings of a dying man, and this adaptation is more a conventional staged reading than anything approaching the revolutionary theater Tynan championed. Unless of course, you think it’s subversive to hear all about his fascination with canings and an anal fixation to rival the Marquis de Sade’s – there’s a lot of that to listen to in this adaptation. As the impresario behind Oh! Calcutta and the first person to drop the f-bomb on the BBC in 1965, Tynan was a famous proponent of obscenity, so it isn’t completely out of place.

If you have a theatrical background there are fun anecdotes of personalities like Olivier to keep your interest, and if you are familiar with Tynan’s work, enough of his philosophy comes through to inspire. But if you know nothing about him, I’m not sure you’ll get anything more than a sad sense of a once-brilliant man being wrung thin by sickness, debauchery and the end of life.

And where’s the relevance in that? (Tynan would’ve spanked me for asking that!) Continue reading →

News, Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed
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The Ripple Effect, or why your commute sucked last night

Photo courtesy of
‘SNOW’
courtesy of ‘erin m’

Last night’s horrific commutes ranged anywhere from 3-5 hours on the short end to 12-14 hours, we’re hearing, with most of those higher numbers west of the city.  Take a look at a couple screenies that Greater Greater Washington put up last night that show pretty much every road west of the Potomac River over capacity with no cars moving.

You can see the snowfall trends in the storm thanks to the Capital Weather Gang’s Submit-a-Report map, and it seems to have aligned a few trends that made things massively difficult for everyone to get around.  Read on for all the details.

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Entertainment, Music, The Features, We Love Arts
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We Love Arts: STOMP at Warner Theatre

Not one word was uttered on stage during Tuesday’s debut performance of STOMP at D.C.’s Warner Theatre. That’s when I realized STOMP is a communication tool. This unique blend of musical theatre stage presence combined with choreographed percussion, movement and physical comedy is more expressive than a singular conversation.

What started as a street performance in the UK has grown into one of the biggest international performance sensations of the last two decades, selling out shows in over 350 cities and 36 countries. STOMP takes all of the fun stuff that annoyed your parents when you were a kid and makes it socially acceptable. Why is it socially acceptable? Because it’s art!

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Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Nuggets Get On Top Of Wizards In A Chinatown Shoot-Out

Photo courtesy of
‘Rashard Lewis and Carmelo Anthony’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

What happened to the defensive stops that the Wizards displayed in their surprise victory over Boston? After following that up with a high scoring loss against the New York Knicks, the Wizards return to the Verizon Center with another high scoring shoot-out defeat against the Denver Nuggets.

The Wizards, who typically shoot 44% from the floor, drained 51% of their shots in the 120-109 loss. Per usual Nick Young led the night with 26 points and Andray Blatche had a great game with 25 points, 15 of them in the first quarter alone. John Wall facilitated the offense with 13 assists.

Sounds like a great night offensively for the Wizards- where did we go wrong?

Denver had a better night.

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Capital Chefs, Food and Drink, The Features
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Capital Chefs: Allison Sosna of DC Central Kitchen (Part 2)

Lunch at WJA
A healthy lunch: Local apples, whole wheat pasta and a meatball and a white bean salad. Photo by author.

Sosna firmly says “cooking is not elitist,” and that she’s working to turn around this misconception. When you hear her talk about simple dishes, using local ingredients and just getting the most out of what you eat, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could think cooking is elitist. What she likes about food remains simple: how food can heal, how it can make you happy. “Food is the centerpiece of life,” Sosna says. Ah, such an easy message we can all relate to.
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